Dr. María Martinón-Torres is currently Research Leader of the Dental Anthropology Group of the National Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Burgos (Spain) and member, since 1998, of the Research Team that investigates the UNESCO sites of Atapuerca. European Doctorate with Extraordinary Award in Medicine and Surgery her background is essentially multidisciplinary, including a degree in Medicine and Surgery, a MPhil in Human Origins (University of Bristol, UK), a MSc in Forensic Anthropology (University Complutense of Madrid, Spain) and a MSc in Statistical Techniques. With more than 60 scientific articles in major peer-reviewed journals, her research has been highlighted as Top 1% of most cited authors in the field of Social Sciences according to Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM. Besides specialised dental studies, her research has led to the formulation of a new hypothetical evolutionary model, integrating the fossil, biogeographical and climatic data, which suggests an Asian origin for the first European populations. She supervises/has supervised about a dozen PhD and Master thesis. She is/has been Principal Researcher or member of several research projects in Spain, Republic of Georgia and China where she also has field experience. She has received research funding from Leakey Foundation, British Council, and the Spanish and the Castilla y León Government. She has delivered about 60 invited talks in international meetings for development of science strategies, opening lectures of congresses and academies, scientific meetings and congresses and public and/or scientific institutions such as Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology (Beijing), University of Tübingen, University of Archaeology (Tel Aviv) or Instituto Cervantes (Brazil), Institute of Paleontologie Humaine (Paris), University of Bolognia, Max Planck Institute (Leipzig), International Workshop at Shanghai (2010) or Naturalis Museum in Leiden among others.